


Rhymes for Troubled Times

by NyamiRose



Series: Spoken Word Poetry [1]
Category: No Fandom, Original Work
Genre: Gen, Poetry
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-10-17
Packaged: 2019-10-19 12:27:25
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 1,999
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17601353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NyamiRose/pseuds/NyamiRose
Summary: Poetry I've written, and performed at the monthly Knoxville Poetry Slam events.This selection focuses on poems about the current political climate.





	1. Red, White, and Blue

I grew up and was raised to love the country I was in  
That gave me comfort, freedom and rights, I saw then  
A beautiful country, lawful, lovely and free  
And for a while I thought nothing would take that from me

But then I saw our veterans lying in our streets  
Begging for clothes, just for something to eat  
Why can’t we even agree on basic human rights?  
Would rather turn a debate into a verbal cage fight  
When our children would rather die than face the hurt in their hearts  
Caused by the way of life we created, it starts  
The decay of a country I loved with all my soul  
That now forgets what was written years ago on that scroll

There is no good, no brotherhood  
From sea to shining sea  
Red waves of blood spilled by the gun  
Of the madman we conceived  
Rather kill those who aren’t like us  
Rather scream, punch and then we cuss  
Till we get what we want  
Get out of our way  
We’ll blow your ass up if you got something to say

Building up walls like there ain’t no tomorrow  
With prejudice and ethics that all seem borrowed  
From a time long before I even existed  
A time that seems so evil and twisted  
Are we going forward or 100 steps back?  
For the first time in forever, freedom seems to be what we lack  
No longer are we the home of the brave  
Cause progress takes that, but progress seems to be in a grave

What’s happening? What’s happening?  
Are we losing our minds?  
What? Bombs and bloody bodies aren't enough of a sign?  
I tell myself I love this country but how can that be  
When all it wants to do it take my rights away from me?  
I’m a faggot! I’m a faggot! That’s what they all say  
A bisexual, sick-in-the-head bitch who needs to go away  
I fear for my life with every step I take  
A kind of fear and anxiety that makes my bones ache  
Hiding who I am, it breaks me down  
Cause acts against people like me seem to abound

You want to take me out? Me and my kind?  
The bigoted wishes of a small, closed mind  
Wake up! Wake up!  
If you do this, we won’t be ourselves anymore  
We’ll be the scar on this Earth, a country to abhor  
Am I the only sane one left? Can you not really see?  
We’re gonna go down on the wrong side of history

But I guess now I have to be honest  
I have hope in my heart  
And I’ll make it a promise  
That this country doesn’t end up the way it looks in my nightmares  
A country that makes me cry, makes me so scared

This is the oath we make to you  
We’re gonna save you, save you  
Red, white and blue


	2. Fake News

I tell you that I am sick  
That I always have been  
And always will be  
I tell you that I fear everything  
And can’t think in any colors but black and white  
That I need medication, daily  
That I need support, always  
And yet you cover your ears and scream “fake news”

I tell you I’ve been hurt  
That it was by a man you shook hands with and trusted  
That you endorsed and thought was good for me  
I tell you I was violated  
Held down and tied up  
That I need justice, but can’t  
That I need you to believe me, please  
And yet you cover your ears and scream “fake news”

I tell you I fear for you  
You’re watching all the wrong channels  
You’re engaging in all these bad shows  
You’re older and can be easily influenced  
So I warn you it’s unhealthy  
They stress you out, always  
They make you angry, constantly  
And yet you cover your ears and scream “fake news” 

I tell you I’m scared  
And sadly, I’m scared of you  
I fear pots and pans barraging me  
Their hammering on my head  
You got close, once  
And so I fear you, now  
And yet you cover your ears and scream “fake news”


	3. Fuck the Politicians

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This poem was written in the aftermath of the Parkland shooting.

Fuck the politicians who care not for what has transpired  
Who think the 2nd Amendment is unyielding and wholly desired  
They tell us to give thoughts and prayers, to live by the Holy Book  
But they also told us there would never be another Sandy Hook  
So here we are at Parkland, yet another school shooting  
With all these fucking senators and governors polluting  
The debate we need to have with “mental illness” and #walkupnotout  
So they can profit off another dozen students killed, no doubt

Fuck the politicians voted in by those who praise the gun  
Fuck them too for thinking that they could shun   
And shame the victims- they are not crisis actors  
They are people who will fight you for which you did not factor  
They have a right to exist more than your AR-15  
Don't call our walkouts or protests any more obscene  
Than bloodied bodies on the floor in a place of education  
Sit down and shut up- We want to save the children of this nation

Fuck the politicians voted in by the parents of the dead  
But those parents shouldn't have had to lose someone to know that this should end  
This fight should’ve been won 19 years before  
When Harris and Klebold started a bloody schoolyard war  
With bombs and assault rifles- weapons of mass destruction  
A massacre beyond what Bush could have dreamed- the ultimate abduction  
Of children’s lives that should have been innocent and clean  
But will the future be different? That remains to be seen.

Fuck the politicians who love to betray  
Who fight for blood money given by the NRA  
They want to rule this nation forever but who will they govern  
If they kill our future citizens because they’re so stubborn?  
Stubborn? No, I’m sorry. I meant ‘homicidal’  
What makes them better than the shooter when they would just stand idle?  
There’s something I want from these fucking politicians  
Considering it if you will, what should be our mission  
I only have one wish, call me crazy, but that’s a fact  
I want my friends to graduate with their lives and limbs intact.


	4. Holy Ground

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Written in response to the recent Christchurch mosque shootings. Also references the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting in 2018, and the Knoxville Unitarian Universalist church shooting in 2008. I personally remember the latter, clear as day.

Death in the church, and blood on the steeple  
Open the doors and see all the people  
Dead on the floor, and too soon heaven-bound  
Cause humanity breeds hate on this holy ground

Sacrilege of the synagogue, stains on the Torah  
Devout laid to rest, graves adorned in flora  
A man consumed with hate for the “other”  
And now too many dead, from grandson to mother

Massacre in the mosque, blood splatters the Quran   
But politicians think it’s deserved so it just keeps going on  
Lives lost to hate, livestreamed for fame  
And now somehow there’s too many people to blame

These people were just praying and now they’re just gone  
Hearts stopped beating half-way through hopes, chants, and song  
I may not have faith, but I still have a creed  
People should be able to worship without having to bleed


	5. Bricks

I’ve been told Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at Stonewall.  
A gorgeous black woman, handed to her parents with a damning error on her birth certificate.  
She started wearing dresses at the age of 5  
And worn shame soon after.  
Her bullies told her to die.  
Her mother told her that being homosexual was to be "lower than a dog”.  
She escaped to New York City at 18, only to be harassed constantly by police  
Who checked under her dress to make sure she was allowed to wear it.  
A sexual assault not unlike the kind she experienced in her youth  
Except this time it was government sanctioned.  
I’ve been told Marsha P. Johnson threw the first brick at Stonewall.

I’ve been told Sylvia Rivera threw the first brick at Stonewall.  
A beautiful latina born with the same mistake on a slip of paper that would haunt her forever  
Her mother commited suicide when she was just 3 years old.  
Later, her grandmother kicked her onto the streets for her femininity.  
She found a new family in New York City, in activism and her friend, Marsha P. Johnson.  
At 22 she took to the stage at gay power rally and said “y'all better quiet down”  
Not that she could have ever been silenced by anything other than Death itself.  
I’ve been told Sylvia Rivera threw the first brick at Stonewall.

I’ve been told Stormé DeLarverie threw the first brick at Stonewall.  
Her mother was black, and her father was white.  
She did not have any error on her birth certificate.  
Her birth was illegal. Her skin bore proof of the crime committed.  
There was no birth certificate.  
She was everything that America would rather not exist:  
A biracial. Lesbian. Butch. Drag king.  
Stonewall veterans describe “a typical New York butch” injured from a police baton to the head.  
She struggled against the officers with blood streaming down her face and yelled to the onlookers:  
"Why don't you do something?"  
And with those words, a revolution began.  
I’ve been told Stormé DeLarverie threw the first brick at Stonewall.

I’m here to tell you.  
It doesn’t matter who threw the first brick at Stonewall.  
It matters that a second brick was thrown.  
And a third.  
And a fourth.  
And another. And another.  
It matters that we never stop throwing bricks.  
Our fight was started with the smash of glass  
And we did not cower. We did not flee. We kept on fighting.  
And the fight is not over.

I will fight.  
I refuse to go back into the closet.  
I will kiss my lovers between their thighs and when I rise back up I will call them the name and pronoun they are  
Even when it’s not the name or pronoun on their birth certificate.  
_Especially_ when it’s not the name or pronoun on their birth certificate.  
I will patron the places we are welcome  
And protest those that donate their profits to our destruction.  
I will fight for our stories to be taught in schools  
Not because it is queer history, but because it is human history.  
I will fight for the rights of our trans community to not be killed as punishment for their crime of simply being alive.  
I will fight so that one day my visibility is not seen as "too political" or "sexually obscene" or "inappropriate for children".  
I will fight so that future generations can look back at our lifetimes  
And say they have their rights because we resisted.

I will not cower.  
I will not flee.  
I will never stop fighting.

I will throw bricks.


	6. Eve (A Poem for Young Female Activists)

Genesis.  
What a scam.  
A lie that has lasted for centuries.  
Arguably the world's most classic, widely-referenced and well-known story of a young woman rebelling against authority to achieve knowledge and freedom   
And yet she was painted as the sinner.

How powerful that story is.   
How disgustingly relevant.  
For now, every woman is a sinner whenever she resists.  
Whenever she questions the conventions around her.  
Whenever she takes action.  
Whenever she fights the status quo.  
Whenever a woman defies man and God to value herself.

There’s an Eve in all of us.  
Eve is in Emma.  
Greta.  
Jazz.  
Mari.  
Malala.

They all bite from the fruit of enlightenment just as Eve did.  
No wonder so many men heckle and hate.  
No wonder so many men foam at the mouth at the mere mention of their names.  
No wonder so many men spew vile poison in the presence of strong young women.

They’ve been taught to mourn Eden.  
To mourn ignorance.  
To mourn servitude.  
To mourn the choices of Eve.

Just think… what all could have been different if Eve had been the one to tell her own story.

My fellow Eves.   
Do not let anyone but you tell your own story. 

Get writing.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Emma = Emma Gonzalez. 19. Parkland shooting survivor and gun control activist.  
> Greta = Greta Thunberg. 16. Swedish climate change activist who spoke at the UN.  
> Jazz = Jazz Jennings. 18. Transwoman and trans rights activist, who co-wrote a children's book about trans issues.  
> Mari = Amariyanna “Mari” Copeny. 12. Resident of Flint, Michigan, aka "Little Miss Flint", an advocate for clean water.  
> Malala = Malala Yousafzai. 22. Pakistani Nobel Prize Winner, who survived after being shot in the head by the Taliban for advocating for women's literacy.


End file.
